The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications in general and, more particularly, to viewing broadcast programs and movies on wireless communication terminals.
A wide variety of forms of delivery of broadcast programs and movies have emerged. For example, it is now commonplace for programs and movies to be available from over-the-air terrestrial and satellite television service providers and Internet-based television providers. Programs and movies including, without limitation, televised shows, movies, news, music, and other content may be simultaneously broadcast over a wide geographic region and/or may be broadcast on-demand to a particular receiver. Moreover, broadcast programs/movies are available on transportable medium, including Digital Video Disks (DVD), HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray DVD.
Wireless mobile terminals, such as cellular phones, are increasingly being provided with capabilities to receive broadcast programs and movies from network servers. Such content is becoming increasing available as more mobile terminals support high-bandwidth communication technologies, such as Global Standard for Mobile (GSM) communication, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), Integrated Digital Enhancement Network (iDEN), code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband-CDMA, CDMA2000, and/or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Users may now search the Internet to find media servers from which broadcast programs and movies can be downloaded as streaming audio/video, such as using the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and/or other protocols.
Although advancements in mobile terminal features and communications technologies are providing far more users the capability to obtain broadcast programs and movies through their mobile terminals, these capabilities may continue to be slowly adopted due to, for example, the complexity and time required for users to search for, connect to, and download such content through their mobile terminals.